Re: Just to mudddy the waters a trifle ...
The £ is actually a fancied up L, from the Latin. Pre-decimal pennies were denoted by "d" (for denarii). The middle item, shillings, was postfixed s (solidi) and the currency was frequently referred to as Lsd.
We should have stuck with it. It was really fun to watch foreigners struggle. Maybe we can switch back after brexit.
<computer angle> - early computers had such a hard time handling 3-element mixed base currency (12 pence to the shilling, 20 shillings to the pound) that they often had hard-wired pound-shilling-pence conversion units. I believe those could also handle halfpennies and fathings (quarter=pennies).
Biting the hand that feeds IT
